11 Lpns Facing Choices After Layoffs

Johnson Memorial Offers 3 Options

May 26, 1999|By SHERMAN TARR; Courant Staff Writer

STAFFORD — Eleven licensed practical nurses laid off by Johnson Memorial Hospital must decide whether to take lower-paying hospital jobs, work at a hospital-owned nursing home and lose some benefits or take severance pay.

The veteran LPNs, who have worked at Johnson Memorial from 12 to 26 years, were told Friday that their jobs in the medical and surgical areas were being eliminated because of increasing economic pressures on smaller facilities such as Johnson Memorial. The hospital will continue to use LPNs in the ambulatory and psychiatric units, a spokeswoman said.

``Of course we're angry. We are 11 extremely dedicated individuals. It's a slap in the face,'' one of the laid-off LPNs said Tuesday, asking not to be identified by name. She said most of the 11 nurses will choose the severance package of one week's pay for every two years on the job and three months of continued health insurance offered to full- time LPNs.

Another LPN said she was going to take severance after more than 20 years on the job because ``I want to get out of the corporation and start fresh. I'm kind of bitter.''

``They are an excellent group of people dedicated to the hospital. It was a very difficult decision,'' said Marianne Drake, the hospital's vice president for development and community relations. She said that the layoffs were forced by economic changes outside Johnson Memorial and that the women were ``counseled'' a year ago about the coming shift away from LPNs.

Johnson Memorial has offered the laid-off LPNs two other choices: take jobs as nurses' aides in the hospital at $12.53 an hour or keep their $16- to $19-an-hour pay rates, but lose accumulated sick leave and pension contributions, by working as LPNs in the Evergreen Health Care Center. That is a 150-bed long- term care and rehabilitation center located nearby and owned by the hospital's parent company, the Johnson Health Network.

If they take the lower-paying hospital jobs, the nurses would retain health insurance, pension and sick leave benefits if they work full-time. If they work more than 24 hours a week, they would also get $1,500 a year to get training to become registered nurses, which are still needed at Johnson, Drake said.

``Johnson would love to have us as aides with all of our [LPN] expertise. It's demeaning because we have licenses,'' said one of the laid- off nurses.

She questioned the hospital's budgetary explanation for the layoffs, noting it was running help- wanted ads seeking registered nurses. Drake acknowledged the RN recruitment, but said it is part of the hospital's ``re-engineering'' to reflect demands by managed-care firms for shorter patient stays.